SANTA CRUZ - Taking your father's retirement badge and pretending to be a police officer might not be the best way to impress a woman.

An Aptos man learned that lesson the hard way Tuesday after he posed as a police officer at a Santa Cruz motel and even tried to pass himself off as cop to the real police officers who showed up.

Officers were dispatched to a motel on the 300 block of Pacific Avenue just after 4 a.m. for a report of a man with a gun claiming to be a police officer, police spokesman Zach Friend said.

According to the caller, Randy Costere was talking loudly in the hallway with two women. When asked to keep the noise down, Costere told him he was an officer conducting an investigation. He had a holstered firearm and a badge, but the caller said Costere didn't display the weapon or threaten him.

Costere appeared to be drunk, according to the caller, who didn't believe the story and called the real authorities.

Police arrived and found Costere, 30, in a motel room where the two women were staying. He told officers he was a cop and gave them a fake name, but police found his real identification in his wallet. The weapon and badge were determined to belong to Costere's father, a retired police officer who was out of town.

Costere was arrested and booked into County Jail on suspicion of impersonating an officer, carrying a loaded firearm in public, giving a false name to officers and possessing a controlled substance without a prescription. He's scheduled to be arraigned Thursday morning.